


enough bones are cold

by notparticularly



Series: Challenge on Infinite Earths - Luther [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Luther (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Gen, tw: mentions of torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-15
Updated: 2013-11-15
Packaged: 2018-01-01 16:39:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1046123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notparticularly/pseuds/notparticularly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The young snakes are timid, shy, afraid that one wrong word in front of eagles or badgers or lions will earn them a tarring from a brush that has swept across their families for generations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	enough bones are cold

**Author's Note:**

> Post-war Hogwarts AU. Imagine that the majority of teachers died/retired after the Battle of Hogwarts, and Snape wasn't made out to be a hero. McGonagall is still the headmistress, other than that teachers are as follows:
> 
> Inspired heavily by [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/863194) and [this](http://two-if-by-sea.livejournal.com/221736.html).
> 
> Hasn't been beta read so all mistakes are mine - please point them out if you spot any so I can fix them!

i.

She catalogues her colleagues the day she meets them, files their names and faces and subjects for later perusal, tries to guess their blood status from the way they react to her presence and the name of the house she has been entrusted to lead, remembers which ones to avoid.

( The results are different from what she expected, and she doesn’t know how to feel about that )

The post is hers by necessity, nothing more. A battle is a difficult thing to survive even when you’re wearing the right colours, and it was long since people had been able to distinguish between a slytherin and a death eater when there was nothing left but rage and flashes of green light. When faced with a lack of Slytherins McGonagall turned to the desperate, and most desperate was Zoe North.

She accepts the job because there isn't another choice, because the Wizengamot does not differentiate between brothers who kill and sisters who hide, do not care that she was married to a muggleborn and hadn’t heard from her brothers for five years before they turned up at her door, bloodstained and sporting matching masks. ( They were murderers Mrs North, if you truly disagreed with their ideals, why did you not stand up to them? ) ( I don’t know, I don’t know, please, I don't know ) ( Because of course they wouldn't believe even a Death Eater capable of torturing their baby sister )

Her house is by far the smallest now, though it grows, slowly, year by year. The young snakes are timid, shy, afraid that one wrong word in front of eagles or badgers or lions will earn them a tarring from a brush that has swept across their families for generations.

(she does not try to make them do otherwise, only teaches the virtues of their house rather than the flaws)

Six years after the war and three into her tenure as head of house there are still not enough Slytherin students to fill half the dormitory, despite this year’s intake being greater than the first three put together. She still heals more wounds and hearts than she thinks she can bear.

ii.

The aurors still in place at the school look upon her and her house with disdain and so she looks upon them with pity and forgiveness and teaches the children to do the same, to smile politely and stay in the shadows and never, never do anything to draw attention to themselves. ( Close ranks, protect each other. Do not ever let them see the damage they cause you. You need no more enemies than you already have )

She teaches them that resourcefulness and determination are good things but do not let the ambition show through and if you allow people to see how cunning you are they will despise you even more.

( She knows she is doing them more harm than good. She cannot fidn the strength to encourage what she hates most about herself )

Rose Teller smiles at her in the mornings and asks her about her day when they share a break, chats disarmingly about her most recent class and offers her a cuppa every time she walks past her office and it does not feel forced, but Rose Teller offers the same unhindered kindness to everyone and Zoe isn’t sure if she deserves it anyway.

Not all of her colleagues are as kind as Rose and that's alright. That, she can understand, can even justify to herself. Alice Morgan dislikes her because Zoe’s brothers killed her parents. The Morgans were pure blood but not the elite, and it was not surprising that the Dark Lord wanted them dead. Zoe knows it was not her brothers, though nobody would believe her if she tried to claim their innocent of this one deed. Her brothers were busy torturing her and murdering the man she loved inside the living room of a house she once called home on the day the Morgans were found dead inside a locked room.

( John Luther dislikes her because he is a lion and she is a snake and that is what he was taught to do, though he is more of a bear than a lion and sometimes she wishes he would meet her eyes at least once )

iii.

Against her better judgement Zoe returns the kindness and one day Rose makes her properly laugh, out of the blue. She realises this is the first time she has properly laughed since they held her back (  _cruciato_ ) and told her blood was thicker than water anyways (  _cruciato_ ) and maybe the dark lord would forgive her (  _cruciato_ ) if she left Mark and joined them ( Never! ) (  _cruciato_ ) but it didn’t matter because he was a dead man and you won't fight bakc if you know what's good for you (  _avada kedavra_ ).

She does not understand at first that all Rose wants is friendship and expects nothing in return. It's been years since anyone has done anything for Zoe except when they need her for something and she's not used to the feeling. It's a pleasant surprise. Rose promises that things will change soon, that house unity is stronger than ever and all they have to do is find a way to utilise it. Zoe allows herself to be swept along in the dream, and perhaps she even begins to believe it.

One day she crosses the yard and happens to see a group of children laughing in the snow, ties of green and ties of yellow mingling as though the last twenty years has not happened. She doesn't realise she's crying until she reaches her office, but through the tears she smiles.

Perhaps there is redemption to be found after all.

**Author's Note:**

> In case it wasn't clear: Zoe is head of Slytherin and the Charms professor and never married John. Instead she married Mark, who was killed by her brothers, both Death Eaters. Rose is head of Hufflepuff and the Transfiguration professor. Alice teaches Astronomy and is head of Ravenclaw and most definitely killed her own parents and pinned the crime on whichever Death Eaters' trial was all over the front page that particular week. John is head of Gryffindor and I havent decided what he teaches but it's probably DADA.
> 
> Just to be clear, I'm not a Slytherin apologist. I just think the house is wonderfully complex and deserving of a little less undiscriminating hatred.


End file.
